Things sure don’t look good for the country. The polls are not the least bit encouraging. The super rich are buying up the government like a bunch of bargain-hunters at a rummage sale, and the pundits are on ego highs that make them almost look like they really know what they are talking about. We will continue to be deluged by the usual Sunday morning talk shows. George Will’s command of the language will delight us with his endless vocabulary of fifty cent-words. Peggy Noonan’s affectations will remind us of the golden age of silent movie stars and the moderators will, once again, become super stars for the networks, leading the masses to believe they really do know what they are talking about. Meanwhile, their words will ring empty as most people wonder just where in the hell this ship of state is going and if we are headed straight into the same economic abyss that has been the fate of empires since time immemorial. We cannot help but wonder if we have been hijacked by the pervasive greed and rampant corruption infecting every facet of a government that was supposed to be the champion of the people, rather than the seductress for the super-rich and politically powerful.
Make no mistake about it, folks, if Mitt Romney and his happy band of plundering thieves manage to buy our government with the massive amounts of their ill-gotten wealth and the sheer stupidity of all those who honestly think they know what is swirling around their heads, take heed. Surely, they are destined to wake up to the day after the elections only to discover they have been had, big time.
Despite their never-ending exhortations and the religious fervor that has led them to believe they have a privileged place with the Lord over all those of lesser stature, they are more likely to suffer His wrath at the hands of those who have reaped the spoils of their hypocrisy. Ah yes, God is just. I cannot think of one fundamental flaw within the souls of twisted humanity that is more repugnant than the self-righteous and those who labor under the delusion that they are imbued with some special relationship with the Deity. So much for the tea baggers and all the hapless fools who bought into their venom, and spewed forth with such absolute certainty.
It doesn’t take a scientist to realize what a bunch of disingenuous rogues the Republicans put up as their star-studded aspirants for the presidency in 2013. There isn’t one among them that has the interests of the American people at heart and who has a modicum of charity in his soul. Nothing more needs to be said. It is painfully apparent that they have honed their ability in the art of lying. It has taken on the aura of respectability, and they do little to mask their facility with the use of those skills in their pursuit of the spoils they so wantonly covet.
Then we have the five justices of the Supreme Court who are their enablers. If anyone harbored any doubts about the dubious reverence accorded members of the legal profession and those who are elevated to the status of “justices,” they should have been laid to rest long ago by their duplicity with those seeking to lay waste to all this country stands for.
Then we have the Democratic Party that, for the most part, I support. I tend to agree with their social agenda, the support of a strong middle class, and equal opportunities for all. But, I do take umbrage with their somewhat cavalier attitude about the system of laws upon which this nation is built, and the attendant social and political stability those laws are supposed to provide. I have no time for bleeding hearts and their self-proclaimed support for what they see as inherently right and just. They have managed to relegate our system of laws to little more than a momentary impediment to what they have deemed to be what is best for this country. I don’t see that as how our system of government is supposed to work. If you don’t agree with the law, there are legitimate provisions for changing the law, and that avenue is available to all of us.
The greatest social program ever put in place by government was that embodied in the vision of Franklin D. Roosevelt in what became the Social Security Act. It was created as a sacred trust between government and the people, with very specific provisions and methods for its administration. However, in what has become a penchant for always being cast as the champions of the downtrodden, successive numbers of politicians have elected to simply ignore the law and unilaterally change it to fit their agendas, the welfare and benefits of the intended beneficiaries are damned. The problems with Social Security is not because of what has been done by Republican administrations but, rather what has been done by Democratic administrations, starting with Lyndon B. Johnson, compounded by Jimmy Carter and continuing up to the present day by Democratic Administrations. They have simply ignored that sacred trust between the government and the people for their own political aspirations in order to incur favor from those whose votes they seek. They ignored the law and we are supposed to blithely accept the professed benefit of their self-perceived superior wisdom. Bull puckey! I would not be the least bit surprised, with time, that we will come to realize that the “problems” attributed to the United States Postal Service by the wolf pack of hungry Republicans are not, also, the result of the inability of politicians from both major political parties to leave well enough alone and let the system function for the benefit of the people, as intended.
Without question, Republicans plunder, but Democrats pander. Both parties could use a cardinal lesson in how to respect and abide by the Constitution and the foundation which it provides as the basis for governing these United States of America.
The conduct of every branch of government throws into sharp relief the flaws that impede their ability to subordinate their own biased interests to the needs and will of the people. I don’t, for one moment, buy into the notion that it was ever intended to work that way. A friendly reminder for those aspiring oligarchs and plutocrats to remember is that this country was established as a “democracy,” not a “monarchy.” It belongs to all the people and they need to start conducting themselves accordingly within that framework.
Rudyard Kipling authored a verse that should serve as a model for questions we should all be asking and for which there should be concrete answers. That framework is titled, “I Keep Six Honest Serving Men.” The first stanza reads as follows:
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
Has not the time come, folks, to begin using those tools in order to ferret out the truth that was intended to lead us to hold political action and hold our public figures to account, rather than allowing them to circumvent the advice and consent of the governed? Is it not time for us, the citizenry of this country, to hold them to ethical standards of conduct and stop them from daring to simply presume, because of their station, they can do any damned thing they want to? By WHAT right have they assumed that authority?
WHERE did the authority come from that recompense for their service to the public was to be augmented by soliciting contributions from the very ones they are sworn to regulate? WHEN did the concept of “conflict of interest” no longer apply to them? WHO gave legitimacy to the notion that becoming wealthy was a legitimate pursuit of their office?
By WHAT right do elected officials have to set their own salaries, benefits, perquisites and retirement programs without the advice and consent of the governed?
By WHOSE authority was it deemed appropriate for government to unilaterally engage in wrapping their activities in secrecy without the advice and consent of the people?
By WHAT authority was the power to engage in the torture, incarceration and assassination of foreign and domestic nationals given without the advice and consent of the governed?
WHY, after his complicity in the deregulation of the financial industries of this country, does former President Clinton appear to have been absolved of any responsibility for the collapse of the economy in 2007? WHAT qualifies him to be a modern-day folk hero?
By WHAT authority have all those complicit in the declaration and prosecution of two illegal wars not been held to account for their actions?
WHY has the President failed to honor his campaign promises to restructure and impose regulations on the financial industries that would help to avert the recurrence of another financial catastrophe such as the nation experienced in 2007 – 2008?
HOW has the nation benefitted from the wholesale importation of former members of the Clinton Administration into key positions within the Obama White House? I tend to see their role more as one of “continuity and control” rather than “advice and counsel.”
WHY has President Obama been given a free pass on practically every campaign promise he has failed to honor and which has caused considerable cost to the taxpayers of this country?
WHY has this Administration failed to call on the knowledge, experience and expertise of the finest economic minds in the country to deal with the so-called “recession,” under which so many good and decent people continue to suffer? Give them full authority to restore integrity and confidence to financial institutions and systems, and implement the safeguards embodied in the Glass-Steagall Act as the best cure we have at our disposal for putting our financial affairs in order.
This could go on into perpetuity, but I think I have made my point. I would, however, pose this one last question. We have every right to expect strong, national leadership from our elected officials, who will take command and make a serious effort to turn this country around, cronyism be damned. It is time for the President to cast his penchant for “consensus” to the winds, assume his rightful place as the rightful leader of this nation and take charge of the situation.
There is an old Wyoming saying among the common folk that says, “If someone is trying to put one over on you, he is blowing smoke up your ass.” That pretty well sums up what we get from every elected official, every politician and every vested interest, gorging at the expense of a nation that is suffering the agonies of the damned. Don’t permit them to delude you into thinking they are getting away with anything that compounds the pain borne by those who have been taken for granted for much too long. Their insatiable greed, and every deception and manipulative tactic they wield are as transparent as a window pane. Be assured it will, eventually, come back to bite them on the ass. They will fail in the grand scheme of seduction they have wrought against the common people. Those who elected them to office will, ultimately, prevail and they will be the ones to revisit and rediscover the virtues and strength of all that made us great. From all that has been laid to waste before us will come a new beginning, and we will be better and stronger than ever. Their mansions will crumble, their arrogance and power will fade, and they will become totally and completely irrelevant. The secret and sinister schemes being drafted by the Bilderbergs in Virginia will fail, precisely because they ended up believing their own press and their attendant false sense of invincibility. The reality of their mortality will, ultimately, fade into the hollow sounds of their indulgent and meaningless lives.
Every decent American has a solemn obligation to lay aside passive entertainment in favor of becoming informed, becoming involved, and taking an active interest and role in the fundamental strength of our democracy – the power of the vote and the will to use it. Look into your very souls and re-discover all of the magnificence and decency that is your birthright. Rid yourselves of the “smoke” they are blowing up your backside, and re-commit to ferreting out truth. Reassert your strength and the will to do what, ultimately, will save you, your children and this country. It is not to be found in claims of virtue based on religious beliefs, political dogma, or the professed superiority of their knowledge and experience. None can be conclusively proven and only serve to seduce the unsuspecting and uninformed among us. It is easy to be a victim. It takes determination and vision to be a change agent.
If we all unite in purging our country of the unbridled evil that engulfs us and that feeds on all that is rightfully ours, we can and will once again prevail. The echoes of “Happy Days Are Here Again,” will be heard once again because of what we rightfully and legitimately reclaim as our gift from the Founding Fathers, not from a bunch of sleazy politicians, slimy sycophants and white-collar thieves that pander to the worst within and among us.
For openers, we can start by:
a. Focusing our efforts in this next election cycle on getting those out of the House and Senate who have paralyzed the ability of those bodies to do the people’s work in a collegial and collaborative way and that we, the people, have every right to expect. “The people’s work first; politics and personal business last.”
b. The Senate has to divest itself of the paralysis from which it suffers. A simple majority must rule.
c. Getting money out of politics.
d. Kill “Citizens United.”
e. Prohibit any appearances of conflicts of interest by justices on the Supreme Court. Justice is blind and they need to be held to that standard.
Where are Buddy Roemer and Rocky Anderson? Are they genuine or just cruel illusions springing from the hopes of those seeking real change we can believe in?
Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
June 5, 2012
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